Friday, March 29, 2013

I knew better than to expect you guys to wait until next
week for this buttercrust pastry dough, after teasing you with its flaky
seductiveness during the apple hand pies video. Yes, the audience has spoken,
and basically said, “post this before Easter or else.”

As I mention in the clip, you really want to use a food
processor for this. You can certainly use a wire pastry blender and do it by
hand, but it’ll take a while, and mixing in the ice water is so much easier
with whirling blades. I’m not sure I’ve ever achieved that same gorgeous
“breadcrumb” texture blending by hand.

If you decide to use this pastry for a savory recipe, I’d
suggest cutting the sugar down a bit, but don’t be tempted to leave it out. I
used the leftover dough from the apple turnovers video, which had all the
sugar, for some duck pot pies, and it was really good, but maybe just a tiny
bit sweet.

If you’re going to use this recipe for some Easter pies or
brunch desserts, I hope you like the dough as much as I did. Just make sure
your butter cubes are frozen, and your ice water is, well, ice-cold water.
These are the keys. Do that, and you’ll have a pastry dough that tastes, feels,
and sounds fantastic. I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 1 pound pie dough (enough for 1 large pie or 4 turnovers):

CHEF JOHN HI. YOU ARE THE BEST FOR ME, YOU REALLY ARE AND FUNNY TOO (FUNNY HA HA I MEAN) ONLY ONE THING I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT SINCE I AM GREEK AND GREEK ORTHODOX, ON GOOD FRIDAY YOU CANNOT EAT ANYTHING EXCEPT BOILED LENTILS WITH VINEGAR, AND VEGETABLES WITH NO OIL. GOOD FRIDAY FOR US IS A DAY OF MOURNING FOR OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. SINCE YOU KNOW SO MANY THINGS THIS MIGHT BE SOMETHING EXTRA. PLEASE DON'T TAKE ME WRONG. YOU ARE ONE HECK OF A CHEF!

I don't mean to be a demanding ass... but would you please do that duck and parsnip potpie as a video recipe. I felt a stirring in my loins when you presented that part in the video. (Oh,food porn, how I love thee:)

Tonight I am making your Beef & Guinness Stew and I hadn't decided on a dessert to make with it. Then, I opened up foodwishes and sure enough my wish for a dessert idea had been fulfilled. Buttercrusted spiced caramel apple filling it is :)

Hey Chef. You know I rarely watch TV, but the past 3 months I have been watching a few shows and last week Jon Stuart was out, the Colbert Report, Parks and Recreation and Chef John - A perfect storm of TV absence. Anyway, just letting you know you were missed, you still haven't shown how to make the perfect bread stick, and they make a bread here called pan de bono that would please the viewers with its awesomeness. And if you haven't had pan de bono, dude... Take care and keep up the outstanding work.

Hi chef John we think you are incredible and since finding your page a couple months ago we have used it for every evening meal. The pastry looks amazing and can't wait to try it but as we are from the uk we wondered if you would post a 'Cornish' beef savoury pasty filling as we have never found a good one. Thanks

Chef John, I'm planning to make this for Easter Sunday or Monday so please respond soon >_< In the video the salt and sugar amounts look relatively the same, but in the ingredients list, sugar was 1 tbsp while salt was only 1 TSP. Did you just miss a "b" by accident or is it really just a smaller amount of salt?

Also, I'm planning to make mini hand pie versions of chicken pot pie, how do you think it will turn out?

Just made you Rhubarb and strawberry pie for dinner tonight. Unfortunately had to use frozen rhubarb fro Poland. Imagine from Poland to Texas for rhubarb. Tomorrow I may try the apple turnovers or maybe use mixed frozen berries with your incredible custard.

I've never understood why recipes say to use butter without salt and then add salt back in. Can't I just use regular butter and skip the salt? I live in a third world country and butter without salt is hard to find.

I am so making these tomorrow morning to begin our Easter celebration!

Internet high five Chef John! The stew was layered with flavor and the hand pies were heavenly, especially next to a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Your buttercrust was a dream to work with and fantastic flavor-wise. The apple filling was so yummy I almost didn't have enough for my pies because I kept eating it (I only used half the cinnamon and added some vanilla bean paste).

As for the stew, I only made a half batch. I tripled the amount of carrots (everyone's favorite) and as I only had dried thyme I went with that but only used 1/2 tsp (no one in my household really likes thyme). Outstanding! Thank you so much for posting these recipes.

Greeter--the reason you use unsalted butter and then add salt is so that you have control over the exact amount of salt in your food. If you can only get salted butter then I can't imagine a reason why you can't use that and then omit the added salt.

This looks lovely, Chef! I never have even once seen a dough that I might actually make instead of just buying the pre-made stuff--but I can picture me possibly doing that with this one. Seems simpler and yummier than any homemade dough I have seen! THANKS!

Seeing this recipe made me want to make a pie. Only wanting to make one pie, I cut all the measurements in half. I halved the resulting dough and rolled out each half for a 9 inch glass pie dish. The crust was very thin. I think the full recipe should have been for one pie only. This is only the secnd pie I've ever made so I don't know if I did something wrong.I followed your American Apple Pie recipe for the filling and it was great!

Here is my one concern: The buttercrust pie dough seemed to be cracking and kind of stiff/crusty. I thought about adding a bit more water when I was giving it the final blend in the food processor. Do you think my hand pies will turn out tough and chewy, or do I still have a good chance of producing something flaky and delectable? Thanks for any insight. I'll let you know how they turned out ;)

I made two batches of dough last night and this morning i baked some beef curry hand pies and cookies with strawberry jam and I have to say... THEY WERE FREAKIN' SUPERB! Your recipes are incredible chef John!

Yummm, I made this with apple-maple filling and it was delicious. So crunchy and buttery. The cayenne pepper is next to the cinnamon in my kitchen though, so I started pouring that on. Luckily, I realized my mistake before smothering the apples with it. It gave a nice kick to the filling though ;).

Where did I go wrong? My dough came out nowhere near as supple as yours. it was rather stiff and cracked horribly while rolling out. I followed the recipe exactly, andI let it rest in the fridge for 4 hours. I know I did not mis-measure any ingredients.

I made the apple hand pies with it, and while they tasted great, they looked more like amoebas than hand pies.

Is this dough less buttery tasting than your other pie crust recipe? This one only calls for 1/2 cup of butter while the older one calls for a full cup. That's a big difference in the amount of butter!

Hey Chef, a question, I don't have a food processor but I do have a blender. My worry is that as the blender is more tall than large the dough won't be crumbled properly , do you think that this may go end up being a issue if I use it instead of the food processor?

Bear, you needed more water. NO dough recipe can be exact due to climate and how dry/damp flour is. Also, did you measure the flour properly, by scooping and leveling? People sometime use the cup to scoop and you get packed flour which ends up being way more than a properly measured cup. Check our flour video for details!

I did this recipe (with the apple filling) twice now and my dough never gets flaky and awesome like yours. It tastes good but just ends up being a dense, somewhat soft dough, not even resembling what you had in the video. What might I have been doing wrong?

Also I notice when making the dough, after I add the ice cold water and turn on the food processor, it just starts to form big balls of soft dough and not the tiny bits of butter/flour that you show. Thank you. :)

I have a similar question to Billy Lykken: the ingredients and process for this seem very similar to your pie crust (with 50% less d'oh... from 2010), except the proportion of butter is much lower. And yet you still get that very flaky crust. How should we interpret this difference in butter? Just make both and try them?

So glad I found this, nice and easy dough for my vanilla bean apple vodka tarts. I usually use frozen ones.I just started food blogging about two weeks ago thanks to you. totally my inspiration. I have been a fan for so long great videos as always :) keep up the good work

My dough looked good at first but after I chilled it in the fridge (overnight) and then tried to roll it out the next day it started to melt and get oily/buttery on my countertop (granite). Do you have any tips to keep this from happening?

hi, I am a fairly new cook, still learning a lot of pretty basic stuff and I think that your video and the written instructions are a good way of teaching. how many of you're recipes don't need an electric mixer to be fast?

CHEF J---I HAVE MADE THIS RECIPE TWICE AND AFTER ADDING THE WATER IN TO TH PROCESSOR( I USED 9 OZ FLOUR AND 3.2 OZ WATER) AND BOTH TIMES WHEN I DO THE FINAL PULSES( 2 OR 3) I GET A BALL OF DOUGH --- HAVE I USED TOO MUCH WATER --- THANKS FOR YOUR HELP --- I HAVE USED MANY OF YOUR VIDEOS AND ALL HAVE BEEN DELICIOUS ---

I had saved this recipe after coming across it months ago. First time stumbling across the blog. Made a test run of the dough earlier in the week and it came out very tasty! I did have to use my blender due to lack of food processor, but it worked ok with a half batch. Now I have a borrowed food processor and am going to be making a large batch for apple pie cookies and mini meat pies for Sunday. Can't wait to surf around the site more and try some more recipies! Love the video, perfectly easy and straightforward to understand.

Exactly WHAT MODEL food processor are you using please? I don't own one and really don't use one, but for this it seems like the way to go, so I'm going to go out and buy one. I just don't want to buy more than I need.

Hi Chef John!I've tried to make this pie crust twice but I just couldn't get the flakiness. I used food processor, frozen butter and ice cold water just as you instructed. What's the problem with my dough?Thanks Chef. I really hope you would reply to my comment.

Hi Chef John , i made up this pastry last night and it turned out exactly like yours, the hand pies are in the oven as i type this, I have avoided pies because my pie crust never turned out, now i see a multitude of pie crust in my future :)

hi chef john. just wondering i've just started making puff pastry so there have been few errors with my pastry. Firstly it doesn't seem to puff up as much, secondly after about 15 minutes once its out of the oven its not flaky anymore. T-T

Hello Chef John, I am sure that you are aware of your resemblance to actor Bruce McGill in the way you talk and your voice. I want to thank you for sharing this recipe for the pie dough. I have a problem that my dough does not have the extreme flakiness as yours and I was wondering if my conventional oven v/s a convection oven my be a factor.

Hi Chef John,i was searching for a pie crust recipe and came across two of ur recipes. one named pie dough and the other named flaky butter pie crust. except for the fact that there is cider vinegar in pie dough, the ingredients are basically the same. i want to make a pie. so which recipe should i use and is there a difference in the final product that u get from both the recipes.

just made this recipe last night and I put in in the fridge wrapped in plastic overnight. When I took it out this morning the dough was hard! I couldn't do anything with it. I checked my fridge temp and it shouldn't be frozen. The only thing I did different from you was use a mixer instead of food processor, but I doubt that could be what messed it up. Any ideas?

Hi, Chef John, The recipe here calls for two cups of flour. Your earlier recipe for pie crust specifies two and a half, with two tablespoons more liquid. Are these recipes intentionally different or have you improved your crust recipe over time, including the addition of apple cider vinegar?

Am i able to make the apple hand pies using your Buttercrust pastry dough the night before and then right before serving them i put them in the oven? with thanksgiving I'm trying to do as much before the the day as possible.Thanks

I don't have a food processor, so I did this the old-fashioned way - with a pastry blender and arm power. It did take a while to get the butter/flour mixture looking like small crumbs, but it was well worth the effort. This was a great crust. I like that it only uses butter - it has a fantastic, rich taste you just don't get from a butter/shortening mix. I used my crust for a traditional apple pie (following your filling recipe, of course), but next time, I'm going to make your hand pies.

Chef John, thank you for the awesome pastry dough tutorial. Much more easy to work with than pre-made. But please, please, please, pretty please as a late Christmas or early new year or a just-thinking-of-you present, demo that duck parsnip pot pie? I haven't found it on the blog, but I am holding out hope.

Chef John, I made this pastry dough and you got me hook. I fill mine with apple filling I made home made. Mmmm. Instead of putting my filling in. Apple pie I fill it in this delicious pastry and everyone loved it. I subscribe to your youtube channel Your awesome.

Well, I don't know where I went wrong, but my dough was too crumby. This was my first time making dough, and I trust Chef John to give a straightforward, simple solution. I added a bit more water which seemed to help, but I won't be making dough again any time soon.

If too crumbly, then you needed more water. With all doughs, amounts are just a guide. You add until it's right. Speaking of which, if you don't make dough again any time soon, then you'll not learn the touch. Good luck!

Hello! I am planning on making your apple pie recipe this Thanksgiving, but I'm not sure if the dough will be enough for a double crusted 9 1/2 inch pie...Do you think I should double the recipe, or will it be enough?

Hello, I am getting ready to make these and wanted to verify the recipe. The video say 1 stick of butter but the written recipe says 4 oz which is half of a stick. How much butter do you actually use and does it matter if it's salted or unsalted butter? Looking very much forwarded to making and more importantly EATING these! Thanks!

Am about to make these pies for the 3rd time. I have trouble enjoying them as my wife cannibalizes the crust as they are cooling and I am left with an apple cookie. Can this dough be frozen? Love most of your recipes, except Coquiiles St. Jacque, as that is now the only way she will eat scallops...

Well Chef John, you were my last hope at ever being able to make any sort of pie crust. Sadly I was not able to achieve your results. I made sure to freeze my butter overnight in tiny cubes, I even weighed it to make sure it was the right amount as I was cutting it from a whole brick. I froze some water in the freezer overnight as well to add, (I thawed it a bit and added cold water to get ice water for those that would assume I dumped ice chunks in there). I spooned my flour into the cups and leveled it off so it wasn't packed down. I think I even have the same food processor as you.I didn't have to pulse it for hardly even a minute however to get the same consistency. My final "dough" had that same bread crumb appearance. When I was trying to shape my first round (I made 2 batches), it wasn't tacky enough to pick up the pieces and was cracking already as I was trying to shape it into the round flat ball to put in the fridge. My second time I used a bit more ice water and was able to get a better tack to the dough (2 tbsp extra was added) This was the ball I ended up using to make my strawberry hand pies. I quartered the ball after leaving it in the fridge for several hours, and attempted to roll it out as is. Impossible. It was way too hard and even after warming with my hands a bit, it cracked. I fixed it and filled my pie. As I was transferring it to the baking sheet, a hole ripped in the bottom. I flipped it over and used the hole as my vent. This was the "test" run. The remaining quarters I let sit out until they were still cool but malleable. I got better at rolling them out etc. however it was impossible to mold and or roll out the initial "triangle" from initially portioning it out, even after I rounded it up again.My test pie was finally done, my crust was no where near as golden brown (I egg washed and sugared it) and it was the antithesis of flaky. The remaining pies are currently baking, but I doubt my result with them will be any different. I have tried so many recipes for pie dough and they always turn out the same. Not flaky at all and they usually crack like mad. I will say that after letting them sit out a bit to warm up, they did not crack but slightly threatened to. It tasted flat, but that was likely my fault as I did not add salt since I was using salted butter. I've not decided yet if I'm ready to out this much effort back into pie crust again to be faced with failure, but I will be sure to remember NOT to skip the salt with salted butter.